The worst attack, a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Islamabad, in a bid to kill at least 31 people and injure dozens more, has occurred in Pakistan in the capital of Islamabad.

The mass blast was at Khadija Tul Kubra mosque, located in the Tarlai Kalan district, southeast of Islamabad, during the Friday prayers.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif of Pakistan opined that the security guards of the mosque had attempted to apprehend the suspect, who opened fire on them before blowing himself up among the worshippers.

Asif claimed that the attacker used to travel to and out of Afghanistan.

The Islamabad administration announced that 169 individuals were taken to the hospital following the arrival of rescue groups at the scene of the explosion.

On Friday evening, the ISIL (ISIS) group took ownership of the attack in its Telegram channel and published an image, which it claimed depicted the attacker holding a gun, with his face covered and his eyes blurred, according to the Reuters news outlet.

ISIL has an affiliate that has been suspected of prior attacks on the Shia minority in Pakistan.

“A resident of Islamabad, Aun Shah, stated that his father had suffered the attack in a bad state. He has a hole in his stomach,” he said.

The Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar denounced the attack as a “suicide strike against innocent worshipers.”

“The attack on places of worship and civilians is a crime against humanity and an outright defiance of the Islamic tenets. Pakistan is unanimous in its fight against terrorism of any kind,” he wrote on X.

Some adults and children were transported to the hospital in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on stretchers or with arms and legs, which the journalists of the AFP news agency witnessed.

Medics and bystanders assisted in throwing the victims with blood-soaked clothes at the back of ambulances and vehicles. There was at least one dead person in the boot of a car, and friends and relatives of the injured were screaming as they crowded into the emergency ward of the severely-guarded hospital, according to the news agency.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that he was deeply saddened by the incident in a statement. In the meantime, President Asif Ali Zardari declared that “an assault on innocent civilians is a crime against humanity.”

He said the country was in solidarity with the families who are affected in this trying period.

The Pakistani top Shia leader, Raja Abbas Nasir, explained that the incident was not only a massive failure in the safeguarding of human lives but also casts a lot of doubts on the performance of the authorities and the law enforcement agencies.

In a social media statement, the United Kingdom ambassador to Pakistan, Jane Marriott, condemned the attack as the violence was “abhorrent.”

She said she was outraged and heartbroken by the horrific attack at Imambargah on the third day of Islamabad when most of the Muslims had been attacked during the Friday prayers. “I am thinking and praying for those killed and wounded and their families.”

The Delegation of the European Union in Pakistan also voiced its condemnation of any terrorist activities and gave condolences to the families of the victims.

In November of the previous year, a suicide bomber detonated himself in the doorway of the Islamabad District Judicial Complex, killing at least 12 and injuring dozens.

A suicide bomber unleashed a bomb on a dump truck outside an Islamabad hotel (Marriott) in September 2008, killing at least 63 people and injuring over 250 others.